Alice Waters

 Alice Waters "was born on April 28,1944, in Chatham, New Jersey. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 with a degree in French Cultural Studies, and trained at the Montessori School in London before spending a seminal year traveling in France. ... Alice opened Chez Panisse in 1971, serving a single fixed-price menu that changes daily. The set menu format remains at the heart of Alice's philosophy of serving only the highest quality products, only when they are in season. Over the course of three decades, Chez Panisse has developed a network of mostly local farmers and ranchers whose dedication to sustainable agriculture assures Chez Panisse a steady supply of pure and fresh ingredients. ... Alice is a strong advocate for farmer's markets and for sound and sustainable agriculture. In 1996, in celebration of the restaurant's twenty-fifth anniversary, she created the Chez Panisse Foundation to help underwrite cultural and educational programs such as the one at the Edible Schoolyard that demonstrate the transformative power of growing, cooking, and sharing food. On March 30, 2010, Waters declined to publicly oppose growing food in toxic sewage sludge, a practice that violates the National Organic Standards Act governing organic food.

Sewage Industry Gives an 'Award' to Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Foundation
The major sewage sludge industry front group, US Composting Council, gave Alice Waters and her Chez Panisse Foundation an 'award' in January, 2011. "The H. Clark Gregory Award to Promote Grassroots Efforts in Composting" was awarded to Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Foundation and their Edible Schoolyard program which promotes children growing food from their own gardens. The award is given each year to an individual who has displayed outstanding service." The USCC also sponsors International Compost Awareness Week to promote sewage sludge "compost," and works closely with its members BioCycle magazine, Synagro, Water Environment Federation and other lobbyists for growing food in sewage sludge.

Chez Sludge
The Food Rights Network released a major investigative report on July 9, 2010 titled: Chez Sludge: How the Sewage Sludge Industry Bedded Alice Waters. It examines collusion between the Chez Panisse Foundation and the SFPUC based on an extensive open records investigation of the SFPUC internal files. (To view the internal documents see: SFPUC Sludge Controversy Timeline.)

Chez Panisse Foundation Mired in "Sewage Sludge Compost" Controversy
In 2009 and 2010 a major controversy erupted in San Francisco involving Chez Panisse Foundation Executive Director Francesca Vietor when the Center for Food Safety (upon whose Advisory Board sits Alice Waters) and the Organic Consumers Association called on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, of which she is Vice President, to end its give-away of toxic sewage sludge as 'organic biosolids compost' for gardeners. In advance of a March 4 sludge protest at City Hall by the Organic Consumers Association, the SFPUC temporarily halted the give-away.

The Organic Consumers Association conducted a noon hour picket of Chez Panisse April 1, 2010, after Alice Waters refused a request to oppose growing food in sewage sludge. The industry front group ACSH is now making Alice Waters a poster child for toxic sludge. Francesca Vietor has formally threatened the UK Guardian for an article it published that Vietor and Alice Waters do not like. Author and blogger Jill Richardson has analyzed the Guardian article and defended its accuracy.

Alice Waters; Awards and Connections
According to Alice Waters' biographer Thomas McNamee, Chez Panisse "is a standard-bearer for a system of moral values. It is the leader of a style of cooking, of a social movement, and of a comprehensive philosophy of doing good and living well." Among Alice's many board affiliations, she is the Founder and Director of the Chez Panisse Foundation, an International Governor of Slow Food, a Visiting Dean at the French Culinary Institute, an Honorary Trustee of the American Center for Food, Wine and the Arts in Napa, and Board Member of the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Alice is author and co-author of more than eight books, including Chez Panisse Vegetables, Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook, Fanny at Chez Panisse, a storybook and cookbook for children, and most recently, the encyclopedic Chez Panisse Fruit. Chez Panisse restaurant was named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine in 2001. Alice has received numerous awards, including the Bon Appetit magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and the James Beard Humanitarian Award in 1997. She was named Best Chef in America by the James Beard Foundation in 1992 and Cuisine et Vins de France listed her as one of the ten best chefs in the world in 1986."
 * Advisory Board, Center for Food Safety
 * Advisory Board, Earth Pledge Foundation
 * Advisory Board, International Society for Ecology and Culture
 * Recipient of the 2008 Center for Health and the Global Environment Global Environmental Citizen Award
 * Circle of Advisors, Rachel's Network
 * Advisory Committee, Wind Farm Alliance

2008

 * John McCormick, Michelle Obama, Alice Waters talk food, Chicago Tribune, July 28, 2008.
 * Alice Waters, Heroes of the Environment 2008, Time magazine, September 24, 2008.

2009

 * Sajid Farooq, Alice Waters' Toxic Nightmare Bares the White House Fruit, San Francisco NBC, Dec 17, 2009.
 * Charlie Amter, Alice Waters renews call for White House organic garden on '60 Mintues' segment Sunday, LA Times, March 16, 2009
 * Josh Harkinson, Did Sewage Sludge Lace the White House Veggie Garden With Lead?, Mother Jones, June 17, 2009.
 * Heather Knight, Nonprofit calls PUC's compost toxic sludge, San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2009.

2010

 * Catherine Bigelow, And across the bay, Francesca Vietor is the new executive director of the Chez Panisse Foundation, Social City, SFGate February 7, 2010.
 * Anna Werner, Concern Over SF Compost Made from Sewage Sludge, CBS Channel 5, March 3, 2010.
 * Chris Roberts, News Farmers Call PUC's Shit, Will Dump it on City Hall Today, San Francisco Appeal, March 4, 2010.
 * What SF calls compost, activists call 'toxic sludge, San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO TV, March 4, 2010.
 * Josh Harkinson, |+The+Blue+Marble%29&utm_content=Twitter A Backlash After San Francisco Labels Sewage Sludge Organic, Mother Jones magazine, March 4, 2010.
 * Photo Gallery: Activists Praise Poop, Deliver Dirt to Mayor's Office, SF Appeal, March 4, 2010.
 * Evelyn Nieves, Claim: San Francisco giving gardeners toxic sludge, Associated Press in the Boston Globe, March 5, 2010.
 * John Upton, The City’s free compost causes stink SF Examiner, March 5, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Food Sunday: Toxic Sludge as 'Organic Fertilizer', FireDogLake, March 7, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Waiter, There Is Toxic Sludge in my Organic Soup!, PRWatch.org, March 16, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, Shit show: What has the SFPUC has been dumping in city gardens?, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 23, 2010.
 * Miss Bigelow's Social City, In School Kitchens with Alice Waters & the Environmental Working Group SF Gate, March 30, 2010.
 * Don Carr, Let’s Put Healthy Food on the Agenda — and in the Curriculum, EWG, March 22, 2010.
 * Organic Consumers Association, The Organic Consumers Association To Picket Chez Panisse Restaurant on Thursday, April 1st, Noon, in Berkeley, CA Alice Waters, World Famous Organic Food Chef and Promoter of Safe School Gardens, Does Not Oppose Growing Food on Toxic Sewage Sludge, News Release, March 31, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Chef Alice Waters and Chez Panisse the Targets of a Toxic Sludge Protest, PRWatch.org, March 31, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, Alice Waters protested for supporting using human waste as compost San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 31, 2010.
 * Suzanne Goldenberg, US chef Alice Waters criticised over sewage fertiliser: Top US healthy-eating chef Alice Waters attacked for supporting fertiliser made of sewage that activists say contains toxins, UK Guardian, April 1, 2010.
 * Tracey Taylor, Toxic sludge demonstrators picket Chez Panisse, April 1, 2010.
 * Raymond Barglow, Organic Consumers Association Pickets Chez Panisse, The Berkeley Daily Planet, April 1, 2010.
 * John Birdsall, Alice Waters Demands Apology from Sewage Sludge Protestors, SF Weekly, April 1, 2010.
 * Peter Fimrite, Groups make stink over S.F. 'biosolid' compost, SF Chronicle, April 7, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, The Shit Show's Extended Run SF Bay Guardian, April 7, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Francesca Takes Legal Action over Sludge Article, La Vida Locavore blog, April 6, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, What San Francisco Found in Their Own Sludge, La Vida Locavore blog, April 8, 2010.
 * Leora Broydo Vestel, Food Groups Clash Over Compost Sludge, New York Times Green Inc. blog, April 9 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Oh Alice, Don't Let Them Do This To You, Lavidalocavore blog, Apr 12, 2010.
 * John Stauber, ACSH Makes Alice Waters a Poster Child for Toxic Sludge, PRWatch.org, April 12, 2010.
 * Susan Galleymore, The Green Mayor Has Toxic Sludge on His Hands, Op-Ed News, April 25, 2010.
 * Barry Estabrook, Composted Sewage Stirs Up Bay Area Food Fight, The Atlantic, May 3, 2010.

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Food Rights Network
 * Francesca Vietor
 * Chez Panisse Foundation
 * biosolids
 * San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
 * sewage sludge
 * OCA, Alice Waters, Exchange on Toxic Sewage Sludge, March, 2010
 * Mark Dowie
 * Tyrone Jue
 * Ed Harrington